So What Is This "Zombie" Situation in HAPPINESSS? (SPOILERS)
With starting out just simply curious, I'd since developed a fondness for "Happiness" (해피니스) KDRAMA (features on POPCORNX), with it being my essential weekly watches.
This post started off as a quasi-review of Episodes 3 to 6, but realising I am not intellectual enough (believe me, I did try, but...), so instead I'll touch on "WHAT IS THE ZOMBIE SITUATION IN HAPPINESS"!
SPOILER WARNING~SPOILER WARNING~SPOILER WARNING
First off, it is somewhat easier-to-categorize this series as a "Zombie outbreak" show, and quite frankly in the show's synopsis, they do not at all. That said, "we" recognise what we see, based on (what I assume to be) years of consuming zombie shows and films, so we "recognise" some symptons ... but here, there are quite a few interesting "twists" to the myth.
THE SITUATION
For the first two episodes, we witness the outbreak of infection in pockets of civilisation. But by Episode 3, we move to a cluster of apartment buildings, where infection has broken out, hereby the military has erected high-walls around the said-buildings, to keep the infected inside the walls. Hence the synopsis of the show we have been reading thus far.
Episodes 3 to 6 predominently shows what happens inside the clustered community of buildings, as well the state of the world outside the walls. Communications in the partment building are eventually cut to the world outside, and we see the non-infected (notice I never said "survivors") attempt to stay alive and un-bitten.
CAUSE & EFFECT
The cause of the outbreak, is via ingested pills.
A pill what was initially meant for COVID was not approved by the Government, and subsequently was peddled as for treating pneumonia. We have since discovered that the pill was said to make you more alert, and was then peddled as a health supplement in the Apartment Building's in-house Gym.
The origin of the pill itself, was said to be stolen medication from a American pharmaceutical company. It has since been revealed in the earlier episodes, WHOmight have stole it, and for WHOM.
The effect of the pills, is to alter the ingester's brains into a zombie-like-state - which in popular media equals needing to feed off a live human being, most likely biting at the neck, or parts of the body. The word "Cannibalistic" is used, but we never get to see meat being ripped apart or ingested.
There is a very handy "briefing" held (NOT "press conference"), which explains "publicly" what the situation had become. BUT this is NOT a "medical show", nor does it attempt to delve deep into being entertainment and a mirror to the world we now live in.
TURNING & THE TURNED
The infected will exhibit cloudly white to white eyes, with a dot for pupils, and an insatiable desire to bite.
Drinking water helps speed up the change, and the desire for blood. And while they are not "Gremlins", once they bite their victims, their victims too turn into "zombies".
Some/most of the turned are FAST, some are lurchers. It had somewhat been established they react by sight and sound. There is no specific daytime/nighttime turns, and it is different for different infected, which to me is hella scary WTF.
The infection is not air-borne, and requires blood exchange into the body's system. This Kdrama is playing it very close to the COVID-parallels, and to me it will be just a matter of time when a strain of the virus develops, just when the a "cure" is nearly found.
The "zombie effect" is not wholly permanent. One moment you are lusting for blood, and the next, you might be sightly more coherent, and even maintain a conversation, like regular humans, before you turn.
Now THIS is a fkn source of stress, because unless you know what to look out for, you could be having a conversation with someone who'll turn, and even have a decent(ish) conversation with you, when the day before, he tried to bite you. Keep watch for Eps 5 and 6.
There is this one persistent dude in the basement carpark, which constantly asks and pleads with difference folks, and possesses a level of cleverness and determination to do so, knowing that he is doing it to get blood. Brace yourselves for Episode 6.
There might to be a specific timeline of turning, but once an infection occurs, he/she will more likely turn, except for our heroine (of course that'll play heavily I the future episodes, methinks). Keeping calm and in control is only temporary, methinks.
HOW TO SURVIVE A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Personally, the "zombie"-angle is a mirror metaphor to COVID, and how the world, and "us" react to the pandemic. The hoarding and the fear is very real, and as we see the situation unfold - in both actions and in-actions - we might end up asking ourselves, "What would we have done in the same situation?". When very possibly we might have already done it with our shopping carts and attitude.
"HOW TO SURVIVE"?
- Do not talk to people's backs against you, when they are hunched over possibly ingesting another human being.
- Do not make unnecessary sounds to attract attention.
Heh.
This is a very real situation where not every information is disseminated to everyone, and neither is everyone moving in a pack, so everyone will have a turn to experience this for themselves. You don't need to hear someone telling you, you see it for yourselves.
TREATING AN INFECTED PATIENT
One interesting aspect of the show - when it started out anyways - was that the "infected/turned" are kept under quarantine observation - some muzzled and tied up in a wheelchair, some not.
And when the make-shift hospital goes beyond capacity, the infected are kept in ice-storage in container trucks. Watch Episode 2 onwards to give you a phobia about container trucks.
Early on, no infected person was killed. This is totally unlike "zombie" films we see, when headshots ruled the moment of constant personal salvation. Here in the world of "Happiness", near everybody was bound and imprisoned, with no direct fatality inflicted on them, as the powers that be are still attempting to find a "cure".
This particular notion plays very heavily into the situation at the apartment building as well. Some are out for blood, while some are still hopeful. The situation that plays out in the basement gym certainly leaves folks - viewers and the characters in the show - questioning what they/your choices will be.
But this has since changed, where certain circumstance and decisions will impact the infected. Which quite frankly parallels the pandemic-gripped world we are living in now. Just when new information appears, the situations shift as quickly.
DONT WORRY BE HAPPY
As much as I have spoiled folks' viewing with this post, there are a few WTF-moments and twists to be had, which subverts the constant Western interpretations of what "zombies" are.
In a way, this kdrama has been informed by years of zombie films and projects before, and attempts to subvert some of that information stored in your collective minds, on how it is to treat zombies.
Two things I'll tease, and 1 thing I've since learnt from watching "Happiness", before I end this blogpost though:
(1) You'll find out WHO is "Patient Zero", and it'll piss you off.
(2) Never crossover "Work" with "Personal".
(3) Zombies are not the problem, "humans" are.
Episodes 7 and 8 is up this Saturday and Sunday, and I cannot wait!
This post started off as a quasi-review of Episodes 3 to 6, but realising I am not intellectual enough (believe me, I did try, but...), so instead I'll touch on "WHAT IS THE ZOMBIE SITUATION IN HAPPINESS"!
First off, it is somewhat easier-to-categorize this series as a "Zombie outbreak" show, and quite frankly in the show's synopsis, they do not at all. That said, "we" recognise what we see, based on (what I assume to be) years of consuming zombie shows and films, so we "recognise" some symptons ... but here, there are quite a few interesting "twists" to the myth.
THE SITUATION
For the first two episodes, we witness the outbreak of infection in pockets of civilisation. But by Episode 3, we move to a cluster of apartment buildings, where infection has broken out, hereby the military has erected high-walls around the said-buildings, to keep the infected inside the walls. Hence the synopsis of the show we have been reading thus far.
Episodes 3 to 6 predominently shows what happens inside the clustered community of buildings, as well the state of the world outside the walls. Communications in the partment building are eventually cut to the world outside, and we see the non-infected (notice I never said "survivors") attempt to stay alive and un-bitten.
CAUSE & EFFECT
The cause of the outbreak, is via ingested pills.
A pill what was initially meant for COVID was not approved by the Government, and subsequently was peddled as for treating pneumonia. We have since discovered that the pill was said to make you more alert, and was then peddled as a health supplement in the Apartment Building's in-house Gym.
The origin of the pill itself, was said to be stolen medication from a American pharmaceutical company. It has since been revealed in the earlier episodes, WHO
The effect of the pills, is to alter the ingester's brains into a zombie-like-state - which in popular media equals needing to feed off a live human being, most likely biting at the neck, or parts of the body. The word "Cannibalistic" is used, but we never get to see meat being ripped apart or ingested.
There is a very handy "briefing" held (NOT "press conference"), which explains "publicly" what the situation had become. BUT this is NOT a "medical show", nor does it attempt to delve deep into being entertainment and a mirror to the world we now live in.
TURNING & THE TURNED
The infected will exhibit cloudly white to white eyes, with a dot for pupils, and an insatiable desire to bite.
Drinking water helps speed up the change, and the desire for blood. And while they are not "Gremlins", once they bite their victims, their victims too turn into "zombies".
Some/most of the turned are FAST, some are lurchers. It had somewhat been established they react by sight and sound. There is no specific daytime/nighttime turns, and it is different for different infected, which to me is hella scary WTF.
The infection is not air-borne, and requires blood exchange into the body's system. This Kdrama is playing it very close to the COVID-parallels, and to me it will be just a matter of time when a strain of the virus develops, just when the a "cure" is nearly found.
The "zombie effect" is not wholly permanent. One moment you are lusting for blood, and the next, you might be sightly more coherent, and even maintain a conversation, like regular humans, before you turn.
Now THIS is a fkn source of stress, because unless you know what to look out for, you could be having a conversation with someone who'll turn, and even have a decent(ish) conversation with you, when the day before, he tried to bite you. Keep watch for Eps 5 and 6.
There is this one persistent dude in the basement carpark, which constantly asks and pleads with difference folks, and possesses a level of cleverness and determination to do so, knowing that he is doing it to get blood. Brace yourselves for Episode 6.
There might to be a specific timeline of turning, but once an infection occurs, he/she will more likely turn, except for our heroine (of course that'll play heavily I the future episodes, methinks). Keeping calm and in control is only temporary, methinks.
HOW TO SURVIVE A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Personally, the "zombie"-angle is a mirror metaphor to COVID, and how the world, and "us" react to the pandemic. The hoarding and the fear is very real, and as we see the situation unfold - in both actions and in-actions - we might end up asking ourselves, "What would we have done in the same situation?". When very possibly we might have already done it with our shopping carts and attitude.
"HOW TO SURVIVE"?
- Do not talk to people's backs against you, when they are hunched over possibly ingesting another human being.
- Do not make unnecessary sounds to attract attention.
Heh.
This is a very real situation where not every information is disseminated to everyone, and neither is everyone moving in a pack, so everyone will have a turn to experience this for themselves. You don't need to hear someone telling you, you see it for yourselves.
TREATING AN INFECTED PATIENT
One interesting aspect of the show - when it started out anyways - was that the "infected/turned" are kept under quarantine observation - some muzzled and tied up in a wheelchair, some not.
And when the make-shift hospital goes beyond capacity, the infected are kept in ice-storage in container trucks. Watch Episode 2 onwards to give you a phobia about container trucks.
Early on, no infected person was killed. This is totally unlike "zombie" films we see, when headshots ruled the moment of constant personal salvation. Here in the world of "Happiness", near everybody was bound and imprisoned, with no direct fatality inflicted on them, as the powers that be are still attempting to find a "cure".
This particular notion plays very heavily into the situation at the apartment building as well. Some are out for blood, while some are still hopeful. The situation that plays out in the basement gym certainly leaves folks - viewers and the characters in the show - questioning what they/your choices will be.
But this has since changed, where certain circumstance and decisions will impact the infected. Which quite frankly parallels the pandemic-gripped world we are living in now. Just when new information appears, the situations shift as quickly.
DONT WORRY BE HAPPY
As much as I have spoiled folks' viewing with this post, there are a few WTF-moments and twists to be had, which subverts the constant Western interpretations of what "zombies" are.
In a way, this kdrama has been informed by years of zombie films and projects before, and attempts to subvert some of that information stored in your collective minds, on how it is to treat zombies.
Two things I'll tease, and 1 thing I've since learnt from watching "Happiness", before I end this blogpost though:
(1) You'll find out WHO is "Patient Zero", and it'll piss you off.
(2) Never crossover "Work" with "Personal".
(3) Zombies are not the problem, "humans" are.
Episodes 7 and 8 is up this Saturday and Sunday, and I cannot wait!
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